Sprint News
Shaq Vs. Tyson Gay Today On ABC (9pm Eastern/8 Central) This will be the most watched track and field event in America this year by far. 3.9 million people watched the show last week. Track and field hasn't been on network TV in the US in over a month (and the
IAAF meets are no longer on cable ratings powerhouse ESPN anymore).
*Usain Bolt Says Loss To Tyson Gay Will Not Play On His Mind
*15-Year-Old Odane Skeen Trying To Follow In Usain Bolt's Footsteps At Youth Olympics
*Shocking: Bolt Admits To Not Partying All The Time "When I was starting out I had to stay at home and maintain my focus rather than going out with my friends." Plus he talks about his street smarts.
The Comebacks Begin
- LRC: Alan Webb Comeback Begins With 1:52.32 800-Meter Race The American record holder in the mile got off to a slow start and never passed anyone in the race and finished 7th out of 9. The link above includes the race video. Updated: We now have up a new story that has the finishing times of all of the competitors and find the conditions probably added 1-2 seconds to everyone's time.
- LRC: Olympic Silver Medallist Nick Willis Edged By Russell Brown At CIGNA Falmouth Mile As Both Break 4:00.00. The final tally was 3:59.61 to 3:59.73. Willis is on the comeback trail after knee surgery (although he did run 3:35 in Feb.). Link includes race finish.
- After Tough Summer, Russell Brown Pleased To Defeat Willis Brown, who opened his outdoor season with a 3:36 but never ran faster, was honest about what he accomplished: "I don’t think I raced against the real Nick Willis."
Falmouth Road Race
- Gebre Gebremariam's Super-Hot Summer Continues As Aayalew Upsets Chepkurui In Women's Race Gebremariam got yet another sprint victory and now he's won Healthy-Kidney, Peachtree, Beach to Beacon and Falmouth. A day after finishing 4th in the mile in 4:02, American Ed Moran was 5th just behind marathon legend Martin Lel.
- Better Safe Than Sorry, Meb Withdraws From Falmouth The defending ING NYC champ is playing it safe as he was able to run 14.5 miles the day before the race.
Commonwealths Are 7 Weeks Away
- Jenny Meadows Is Out The world and European bronze medallist wants to run indoors and her Achilles is bothering her.
- Lisa Dobriskey Is In She will defend her Commonwealth title after all as she feels she is just now coming into form.
- Brits Face Choice - Commonwealths Or Indoors Next Year At Commonwealths, you represent England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
- Team To Be Announced Wednesday
- India's PM Steps In To Try To Save Preparations The Indians are blaming foreign companies for their own ineptitude/corruption.
The Poor Dope As Well
8 Pakistanis Fail Doping Tests
Waste Of Money Youth Olympic Games Open
- Good Read: Pat Butcher On Youth Olympics And Rising Young Stars Butcher talks about some of the future stars of the sport like 15-year-old Qatari Hamza Driouch (1:47.05!) and some of today's stars who excelled as youth (in his teenage years, Kenenisa Bekele actually lost the youth 3,000).
- Athletics Competition Starts On Tuesday Some interesting events for the 15-17 year olds like the 1000 as well as a 100, 200, 300 and 400 relay.
- First Youth Olympic Games Underway In Singapore 3-on-3 basketball is a sport.
Falmouth Pre-Race News
Meb Keflezighi, Gebremariam And Lineth Chepkurui The Big Stars At Sunday's Falmouth Road Race Gebre Gebremariam is the hottest man on the US road racing circuit, while Lineth Chepkurui is on one of the greatest American road-racing tears of all time, setting records almost every week. Meb Keflezighi and Catherine Ndereba will try to compete on the Cape with $90k in prize money
on
the line.
*Nick Willis To Make Return In Falmouth Road Mile We also find out that now-retired Wolverine coach Ron Warhurst is taking on Lee Emanuel and Brandon Bethke in an Ann Arbor group that will include proven pros Nick Willis and Nate Brannen. The club is going to be called the Very Nice Track Club.
Non-London News
- Sammy Wanjiru Running Chicago Marathon This Fall He's the defending champ so this is not a big surprise, but a nice pickup for Chicago as Wanjiru when healthy has to be regarded as the best marathoner on the planet.
- Antonio Pettigrew Funeral Saturday
Into The Wild Of San Francisco
Interview With Guy Who Missed OT Qualifier By 1 Second In San Francisco Former Penn Stater Tyler McCandless flew out to San Francisco to try to get his 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier but ended up with a 65:01 and a quality story.
Tabloid News
Mark Lewis Francis Calls Michael Johnson The Simon Cowell Of Athletics We're the ones who actually sidelined MLF's career ten years by telling him it was okay to eat at McDonald's when we roomed with him in Ireland. We're glad to see him running better in 2010, but see Michael Johnson's point.
HS News:
17-Year-Old Oliver Bear Don't Walk Runs 6:07 Pace For 50k To Break US Junior Record
Horrific Crash Between A Van And An SUV Both Carrying Cross-Country Runners (And Cal Baptist Team) Kills 3 In California Our sympathies go out to all involved. You can share your thoughts here.
Midweek Action
Folksam Grand Prix 2010 Results (Erin Donohue 2:00.34 Win, Duane Solomon 800m Win, Boaz Lalang 3:39 Over Will Leer) We are fans of John Cook but think it would be great if Erin Donohue went sub-4 before Shannon Rowbury. They'll both get the chance tomorrow in
London.
*Gothenburg Sweden Recap IAAF
Sad News
Antonio Pettigrew Has Died Updated article.
The 1991 world 400m champ, who admitted to using drugs from 1997-2003, was found dead at the age of 42. He was most recently an assistant coach at UNC. We commend Pettigrew for admitting his drug use and for UNC for giving him a second chance.
*Fair Obituary On Antonio Pettigrew In British Newspaper
On The Boards: RIP Antonio Pettigrew
*Career Facts On Pettigrew Eurosport Yahoo
*2008 Article On Pettigrew's Name Coming Out In Court ESPN
LetsRun.com Jinx?
Usain Bolt Out For Rest Of Season With Back Injury Just when we started to think of the publicity a Bolt-Gay rematch in Brussels was going to get, it was announced Bolt is out for the rest of the season. For the rest of 2010, track and field in the US will be relegated to obscurity and tape delay broadcasts on obscure stations. In case you can't tell, we're bummed.
*Discuss Bolt's Injury
Week In Review
LRC The Week That Was In Running: Tyson Gay Over Usain Bolt, Chris Solinsky's 12:55 And The 34-Year-Old Mark Kiptoo, Plus Phil Knight And Oregon's $41 Million Academic Center We give you an abbreviated recap of the week in running. And just so you click on it, we mention Alan Webb.
IAAF Council Meeting
- After Budget Cuts, IAAF Still $9 Million In The Hole In 2010 That is seriously supposed to be good news. They have a lot of financial reserves, so a $9 million deficit is supposedly okay.
- More Info On IAAF Council Meeting
- Kavarna, Bulgaria, To Host 2012 World Half Marathon Champs
IAAF Diamond League - 2 Meets To Go
Start Lists For Thursday's Weltklasse Meet This is generally regarded as the top one day track and field meet in the world.
*Diamond League Trophies Unveiled IAAF
*Track & Field News Looks At Diamond League Chase
Random News
- Former S. Afircan Athletics Officials To Face Criminal Charges
- Carolina Klüft Says Her Body Is Done With Heptathlon
- Isinbayeva Eyes February Return
- WADA Chief Very Critical Of Major League Baseball
- Former NCAA 400m Star Adam Steele Now A Cop
Recommended Reads/London-Related Articles
- David Oliver Talks About His Rise From A Foot Locker Employee With No Contract To #1 In The World In 4 Years Along the way, he rips the European competition: "Outdoors, I don't really pay attention to any European guy."
- To Be One Of The World's Best, Mo Farah Eats, Sleeps & Trains Like/With The Kenyans Farah: "There's no distractions - no television, no going to the cinema. I realised if I was going to achieve anything I would have to do what the Kenyans were doing."
- Thanks To Yohan Blake's 9.89 In London, Jamaica Is Now 1st Country To Have 4 Sub-9.90s In One Season
Aviva London DL Friday-Saturday *LRC LiveThread *Full London Results *Friday Recap *Saturday Recap *Photos *Gay's 9.78 All-Comers Record!
Oliver, Wariner And Felix Headline Day II, Leo Goes 3:50 In Mile
American sprinters and field eventers, led by David Oliver (13.06), dominated the final day in London. In the distance events, Kenyan Augustine Choge took the men's mile in 3:50, while Leonel Manzano came back with another fine performance, running 3:50.64 to place 3rd and set himself atop the 2010 US mile leaderboard. 2 Americans (Uceny and Pierce) broke 2:00 in the 800 but Mariya Savinova (1:58) proved she's the world #1, as Alysia Johnson and Maggie
Vessey
were well back. Biggest surprise of the day? Christian Cantwell loses a 20-meet win streak in the shot put.
*IAAF Recap Of Day 2: Felix Completes Sprint Double As Christian Cantwell Loses For 1st Time All Year
*Top Coaches Ricky Simms, Terrence Mahon And Alberto Salazar Talk At UK Distance Summit Rule #1 - Make sure you coach some of the most talented people on the planet.
*After Excelling At Euros, Brits Flop At Home
*US Stars Dominate
*Carolina Klüft Profile Very few photos included.
*Oscar Pistorious Still Way Short Of Commonwealth Games Time
LRC MBoard Talk
*Leo Goes 3:50 For 3rd
*Maggie Vessey???
*Elite Coaches Meet, Talk Training In London
London Friday: Tyson Gay 9.78 Into A Headwind!!!
With Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt sidelined and rainy, cool conditions for the first of two days in London, American Tyson Gay ran the fastest time of 2010 despite not being sure if his groin would hold up. Aviva Grand Prix Day 1 also featured PRs for Oregon grads Wheating and Rupp, a win for Lagat in the 3k, and the return of Tirunesh Dibaba to the top of the world 5,000 ranks.
*Andrew Wheating 1:44.56 PR For 2nd Ahead Of Nick Symmonds Again
*Men's 3k: Lagat Wins 7:40, Farah 2nd, Rupp 7:43 PR, Mottram 7:45
*Full Friday Results
*Tyson Gay Blitzes Field With World Leading 9.78 Eurosport/Yahoo Recap
*IAAF's UK Respondent Has Laptop Stolen
It's Official: Asafa Powell Out Usain Bolt originally wanted to race here as well until the Brits tried to tax his endorsement income. Without Bolt and Powell, this meet is still pretty good, as if you can have a 2 day track meet and get fans to pay to watch, you've got quality. Now the headliner is Walter Dix vs. Tyson
Gay
over 100m. We could
see Bernard Lagat get the American
3k record, we have Andrew Wheating
and Nick Symmonds in the 800 and the American female crew in the women's 1,500.
London Aviva IAAF Preview It is really annoying how the IAAF website has half a preview and then directs you to the Diamond League site.
*Tyson Gay 6-Minute BBC Interview Where He Talks About Beating Bolt, Racing In London And More Gay says he's never taken a vacation and will take one this year. He's earned it to say the least.
*Carmelita Jeter Ready For London, Talks About Her 83 Year Old Grandmother Getting Upset About Online Comments About Her It's too bad Veronica Campbell Brown isn't in many DL meets this year. She's the world leader
in the 100 and
200 this year. If the men's top 100 and 200 man wasn't running a lot of meets, people would be asking why. We've heard very little about Veronica this year.
*Hurdler David Oliver Clearly Enjoying The 2010 Season The WR could fall at any time. Oliver missed nearly 4 months in 2009.
More: British 400m Man Michael Bingham (Via Wake Forest) Says He's Not Just Competing For Britain For Financial Reasons Independent.co.uk
*21-Year-Old Perri Shakes-Drayton, Surprise Bronze Medallist In 400m Hurdles At Europeans, Excited About London 2010 The Independent
Previous London News:
Aviva London Start Lists This is a great meet every year and a rare 2-day meet. Tyson Gay vs. Asafa Powell in the 100m, plus a do-over of the men's 800m in Stockholm (Andrew Wheating and Nick Symmonds). Not to mention the American record could fall in the men's 3k (Lagat and Rupp).
*Veronica Campbell Brown, The Top 100 And 200m Runner In 2010, Explains Why She Hasn't Been Seen On Diamond League Circuit Much We don't see her on the start lists this weekend either. Crazy.
*Asafa Powell In His Diary Says He's Not Sure When His Next Race Is We hope it's this weekend in London.
*5 Kenyans Near Diamond League Glory
*British 5k Record Holder David Moorcroft Thinks Mo Farah Can Get 2012 Olympic Medal
*Borlee Twins Talk About Wrong One Winning European Gold
Previous London News:
*Allyson Felix Going For 200-400 Double In London This Weekend
*Dayron Robles Pulls Out Of London Meet, Will Race Next In Brussels August 27
*Unbeaten Junior Phenom Jodie Williams Getting Advice From Allyson Felix
*Blanka Vlašić Mistakenly Reported To Be In Porno Film She's got another rematch with Chaunte Lowe on Friday.
College Discussion
- High School Phenom Cybulski Chooses UCLA
- John Millar To Wake Forest
- Steve Walsh To W&M
- Arkansas Best Team On Paper? No.
News, History British News - Farah, Coe And Yamauchi
Mo Farah Glowing After 10k/5k Double At Euros - Says He Can Medal In London 2012 Farah's wife went home alone from their honeymoon so he could stay and train in the mountains of Kenya.
*36-Year-Old Mara Yamauchi Announced For ING NYC Marathon Yamauchi so far is the biggest name to rival Shalane Flanagan and Deena Kastor. After a 2:23 career-best 2009 London performance, Mara tanked and got 10th in 2010. She will hope to continue the trend of older women marathoners having success in the top marathons.
*Yamauchi To Run BUPA Great North Run Paula Radcliffe was the last Briton to win the race back in '03. Portugese Jessica Augusto will race as the returning champ.
22 Years Ago - Seb Coe Excluded From 1988 British Olympic Team Father/coach Peter Coe thought it was a political decision.
World Champions Kemboi And Kirwa Yego Left Off African Team For Athletics World Cup
Monday's Distance News
- Lisa Koll To OTC Portland
- Michael Rimmer Reinstated Into 2nd Place In Men's 800m At Stockholm The Americans Wheating and Symmonds will get a rematch this weekend versus Rimmer and Kaki in London.
- After Foot Surgery, Evan Jager Is Focused On 2011 2009 was the year of young phenoms Jager and Fernandez. 2010 was not.
- Nick Willis To Run This Weekend's Falmouth Mile Willis, the Olympic silver medallist, has missed most of 2010 after knee surgery but now is getting ready for the Commonwealth Games in October.
Update On Armstrong Probe: Long Profile On Jeff Novitzky (The Chief Investigator), Nike Admits To Being Contacted By Investigators Armstrong's lawyer questions whether this is a waste of taxpayer dollars. We don't think so since millions of kids look up to athletes.
Sunday's Action *Luzern Results *Gatlin Results
Luzern: Nesta Carter Defeats Walter Dix 9.86 To 9.88, USA's Morgan Uceny Runs 1:58.67 The runs were PRs for Dix and Uceny. Uceny went sub-2:00 for the first time in her last 800m and then was the top American in Stockholm in the 1,500m before this race. Last year's 800m star Maggie Vessey only managed a 2:02.
Discussion Of Uceny's 1:58.67!
*Results
Estonia: Justin Gatlin Comeback Race #2 A Win In 10.17 Photo and recap. Adam Nelson won the shot put.